PhotoWiz

This page shows you the
result of correcting two photo with ContrastMaster and similar
tools. It is meant to give you the chance to compare ContrastMaster
with other tools. We tried to do the photo corrections in the
other tools as accurately as possible and didn't try to cheat
by using them wrongly. The names of the other tools aren't mentioned
(only Photoshop), but they are sorted according to their price.

The Original Photo

The used photo is
a bit underexposed, but offers a lot of different image
areas with small details (the wall, sand and tree) as
well as large details (e.g. the clouds and the car). There
is a lot of contrast already in the image (between the
bright sky and the dark foreground), but little contrast
in local image areas.

Enhancement

Comment

ContrastMaster
- Normal Effect
($70 / $40)

This is just one of the various
looks that you can produce with many effects of ContrastMaster.
ContrastMaster improves the overall contrast by brightening
shadows and darkening highlights. It also increases contrast
in small and large image details. The original colors
of the image are kept.

ContrastMaster
- Strong Effect
($70 / $40)

This ContrastMaster effect was
deliberately made quite strong to show how much contrast
adjustment can be applied without damaging the image.

Photoshop Unsharp
Mask

Unsharp Mask
is sometimes used for local contrast adjustments. In this
case the shadows become even deeper and the highlights brighter
up to the point of blowing out. Larger details are emphasized
a bit, but smaller details stay soft.

$150 Tool

The colors
have been altered and look less natural. The clouds have
not been emphasized very much. There are very few adjustment
options, so you do not have much control over the effect.
Higher effect settings sometimes produce artifacts or blown
highlights.

$100 Tool

At full intensity
the effect is still a bit moderate. The overall contrast
is improved, but the contrast in the details is only slightly
enhanced. There are no options to adjust the effect apart
from the intensity slider.

$70 Tool

The sky looks
too grayish and other smaller details have not been emphasized.
It looks softer than the original.

$50 Tool

Looks very
unnatural, because shadows and highlights have been removed
too much. The result is oversaturated and the sky became
quite ugly.

$40
Tool

It seems that the contrast has
been greatly reduced instead of increased, which makes
the image look faded. In the extremely brightened up shadows
ugly artifacts were added.

$30 Tool

This tool
produces a very strong effect. The contrast is increased
in larger details, but smaller details come out soft. The
original colors of the image were changed and do not look
natural anymore.

Freeware
Tool

This tool
floods the image with ugly artifacts. They can be blurred
away a bit, but then the image becomes too soft.

Still got questions ?

About

The Plugin Site offers various resources for Photoshop, Lightroom, Photoshop Elements, Paint Shop Pro, Photo-Paint and other applications. We also develop own products, including Photoshop Elements plugins, Photoshop plugins, external editors for Lightroom and standalone applications.